This blog contains the materials for my Face|Resection project. All materials are free to view and download. Please feel free to use and disseminate as desired, but please make sure to credit me (and preferably link to the hosting site). I want this resource to be available and helpful, but being properly credited for its public use is incredibly important as both a freelancer and as a person making a living as adjunct faculty.

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Disclaimer: Although this
section is utilizing the Bach cello suites for their effectiveness in
learning to control lip-multiphonics, they are intended as a teaching
and practice tool. This is meant to fit into the traditional use of
Bach's cello suites in trombone pedagogy and is not intended to imply
that the author is advocating their use in public performance. Aside
from the debate on the value of performing the cello suites on
trombone, many of the possible lip- multiphonics used will create
distractingly extreme changes in timbre and therefore their use is
for a more theoretical application than a directly musical one.

In
an attempt to demonstrate the concept behind this, the majority of
the 2nd
Cello Suite has been included in this text with suggested split-tones
and interpretations of various multiple sonorities included1.
The complete movements of the Allemande
and Menuets
are intended to provide practice for quickly and accurately hitting
split-tones as a quick direction change within a larger phrase. It is
often difficult to incorporate split-tones into a cohesive phrase
without their attack or release bogging down both the player and the
music- these movements provide an excellent way to address this
issue. Try to blow through the split-tones in the same way a cellist
can integrate a double stop smoothly into a larger phrase and
compliment his/her playing with it.

The
inclusion of the Preludé
and
Sarabande
come with some what loftier goals. Given the slower speed and style,
these parts provide an opportunity for a player to strive for an
integrated sound that is focused not just upon immediacy and
accuracy, but also attempting to truly create a beautiful, harmonic
sound with his/her split-tones. In the Sarabande,
try to draw the split-tone out of a lush tone and focus on a timbre
that matches one's monophonic sound. It can be helpful to play the
split-tones with as much of an 'O' phoneme as possible. Often, the
more open the phoneme one can play with while maintaining the center,
one can achieve an unclouded split-tone that has more room to be
perceived as a simple dyad. This type of music is an ideal situation
to develop a gentler, more controlled and elegant touch with one's
split-tones.

The included excerpt begins at the
end of Prelude, where the first dyads appear.

Obviously, many of the split-tones
written into this cello suite are more theoretical than practical and
their production has the potential to be immensely unmusical. Their
inclusion is intended to be a practice method to develop an immediate
attack and remove the stationary feeling many players associate with
the creation of split-tones. Try to approach it in this way while
continuing to strive for the highest musical ideals in one's playing.
Holding a technique to the highest possible standards, even if they
may be unattainable, is a practical method for raising the bar both
in one's own playing and one's definition of possible. This
application is much like a player working to develop his/her high or
low range well beyond what is required by the repertoire because of
the security it adds to what is demanded on the job.